Archive for the 'Regular Season' Tag Under 'Ducks' Category

The Ducks better hope their attendance surges or their mascot could end up being targeted by local police.

The Thrashers, who play in Atlanta, a southern-based city where ice hockey is about as popular as tuberculosis, staged a mascot-related stunt aimed at selling tickets. An account of the "incident" can be found here.

Don't know about you, but this sounds like something the Walt Disney Co. would try. Thankfully, the Walt Disney Co. has no say.

The Thrashers rank 28th in the NHL in attendance, averaging 11,929 a game. The Ducks are 24th, at 14,536.

Ducks defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky will miss the final three games of the season because of a broken hand. Visnovsky suffered a right-hand fracture during the third period of Tuesday night's game against the Kings at the Honda Center. He will be evaluated both Wednesday and Thursday.

The Ducks held Minnesota to 0-for-4 on the power play Wednesday to quiet much chatter about their dismal penalty kill.

It was a step in the right direction sparked by employing forwards.

“I think we worked harder,” Coach Randy Carlyle said. “We were more successful in the small areas. We won more one-on-one battles. We started with the puck more on faceoffs and we cleared the zone. We used six forwards in a lot of the situations. Sometimes we had four rotations of forwards go through, and that's always a good sign because you've got fresh people out there. You're not hemmed in your zone and getting worn down."

In dissecting his team's night, Minnesota coach Todd Richards touched on the same topic.

"Every time we got on the power play, we couldn't do a thing," he said. "It was tough for us to get in their zone. They had it on their stick more than we had it on ours. We were chasing."

Perhaps no Ducks player was in as good a shape as Erik Christensen during the team's recent road trip.

Because he was a healthy scratch for all four games, Christensen had done nothing but practice. On game days, he would go through the warm-ups and then maybe hit the stationary bike.

"I spent the whole road trip working out," Christensen said.

The winger has not allowed himself to get frustrated by the situation, though, because he understands. Besides, it makes days like Wednesday all the more worthwhile.

At the end of the pre-game skate, Christensen was informed by assistant coach Newell Brown that he would play - it was his first game since the Ducks' opener Oct.3 and only his third game since he underwent shoulder surgery in June.

With one of the more difficult stretches of their schedule behind them, the Ducks begin another phase today with clearly defined areas to address.

Tonight's game against Minnesota begins a span of 16 of the next 21 games at home for the Ducks, who turn their attention toward shoring up their penalty killing and getting off to better starts. They must do so without injured James Wisniewski, a key penalty killer and top-four defender.

Ryan Whitney and Scott Niedermayer each played more than 26 minutes in Sunday's game, the first without Wisniewski. Expected to ease that workload are fellow defensemen Steve Eminger, Nick Boynton, Luca Sbisa and Sheldon Brookbank.

“These guys have got to step up and do something that's not normally asked of you when a guy who plays a lot of minutes is out,” Whitney said. “That's what we're going to need.”

One of the more difficult parts of the Ducks' schedule is over with, but there is still plenty of work ahead.

The good news is that the Ducks have 16 of their next 21 games at home, starting with Wednesday's rematch with Minnesota (right).

The bad news is that the Ducks are still looking for their first home victory because they dropped their opener to San Jose and promptly bolted town.

The Ducks only had 20 victories at Honda Center last season, the fewest of any playoff team. They have an opportunity to improve on that over the coming weeks, and that will certainly involve special teams play.

The Ducks' penalty killing unit is running at 72 percent. They have allowed eight power play goals in five games.

There was no update Monday on the status of Todd Marchant, a team spokesman said.

The Ducks were off after they concluded their four-game road trip Sunday with a 3-0 loss to the New York Rangers in which Marchant left the game late in the third period after he was slammed into the end boards by Dan Girardi.

No initial diagnosis was known, although Marchant was cleared to fly home after the game with soreness.

The Ducks resume practice Tuesday. They next play Wednesday against Minnesota to begin a stretch of 16 of their next 21 games at home.

Joe Thornton had a goal and an assist and Dany Heatley had two assists as San Jose spoiled the Ducks' season opener with a 4-1 victory Saturday night at Honda Center.

The Sharks jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Goaltender Evgeni Nabokov made 24 saves.

San Jose scored twice in a span of 1:37 late in the opening period. Patrick Marleau blocked Ryan Whitney's point shot and then sped to a shorthanded breakaway goal. Thornton backhanded the puck past Jonas Hiller on a 3-on-2.

The Sharks thoroughly dominated the second period, holding the Ducks without a shot on goal for the first 18:23, including the entire duration of a Ducks' power play.